Can OPM avoid another retirement systems modernization crash?

Federal News Radio

Avue Co-CEO Linda Rix weighed on this recent question, saying, “You tend to see the same requirements for the same business processes that keep resurfacing. It complicates projects like retirement systems modernization because agencies want custom code instead of trying to be adaptive with someone else’s system. The issue for OPM, and more broadly in the government, is while OMB has been pushing cloud first, and innovation with organizations like GSA’s 18F, at the end of the day what makes it very difficult is the business processes currently in place are not adaptive enough to take advantage of innovation. Projects die under their own weight because there are always different rules and processes that aren’t applied to take advantage of more modern and innovative technologies.” Read More of the Article

Federal hiring, Fixed Before, needs fixing again

The Washington Post

Avue Co-CEO Linda Rix participated in a roundtable discussion before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on April 12, 2016. The Washington Post’s account of the event says this, “It’s a struggle Uncle Sam is not winning, according to Linda E. Brooks Rix, co-chief executive of Avue Technologies, a private firm that works on federal personnel matters. She called the federal hiring process “a deeply broken mess.” Read More of the Article

Fresh Take: Public Servant or Political Piñata?

On Federal Soup, Fixation on Firing Feds: part one in a four-part series by Avue Technologies Corporation Co-CEO Linda Rix

The focus on firing federal employees is a pendulum that swings with political tides … much like outsourcing, pay-for-performance, and public-private pay parity. And when it comes to congressional interest in firing feds, nothing fuels the fire like agency scandals—GSA conferences, VA veteran appointment backlogs, IRS targeting conservative advocacy groups, Secret Service partiers. Hearings abound—and then, a cry for action. Read the Post

Fresh Take: Fire or retire … about those pension penalties

On Federal Soup, Fixation on Firing Feds: part two in a four-part series by Avue Technologies Corporation Co-CEO Linda Rix

In January 2015, Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, introduced the “Increasing VA Accountability to Veterans Act of 2015.” This bill, H.R. 473, would let the Department of Veterans Affairs reduce a Senior Executive Service employee’s pension if he or she is convicted of certain felonies. This would include in its sweep SES employees in the process of being fired as a result of a conviction, but who leave the VA before the firing action can take place. If the bill passes, it would introduce the first performance-based pension penalties. Read the Post

Fresh Take: Appoint, Resign, Repeat

On Federal Soup, Fixation on Firing Feds: part three in a four-part series by Avue Technologies Corporation Co-CEO Linda Rix

Those in Congress who argue that some functions are “inherently governmental”—despite the fact that private-sector companies are more experienced, agile, accountable and infinitely cheaper than OPM and its endless cascade of chargebacks to agencies—they need to reset the idea of what constitutes the hiring or appointment of capable individuals. Read the Post

Fresh Take: Leadership Will, or Leadership Won’t

On Federal Soup, Fixation on Firing Feds: part four in a four-part series by Avue Technologies Corporation Co-CEO Linda Rix

Imagine you are a federal executive—you feel you understand the laws governing civil service, yet you don’t take action when it’s warranted. Why not? The question is a good one. Is it lack of confidence? Perhaps lack of upper management support? Has the process become so obfuscated it feels too risky to act? Is it a lack of leadership will? Do you lack documentation? Do you fear the action will result in a complaint or protracted appeal process? If you lose on appeal, does it adversely impact your own career? Is the person a favorite of yours—or maybe your boss or boss’s boss? Read the Post

Fresh Take: Results of Federal Hiring Reform Are In: The Top 3 Reasons Why Nothing Works

The Fall 2015 MSPB newsletter, Issues of Merit, declares, “The Federal Civil Service Hiring System Is Out of Balance.” The article points to the gender imbalance in civil service hiring and blames veterans’ preference, disparaging vets by calling them “minimally qualified,” and promoting the notion that veterans’ preference is a non-merit factor that allows vets to “block the list” and make it “effectively impossible to hire the preferred candidate.” MSPB even manages to mislead when using the term “disabled veteran.” But MSPB misses the point entirely, using grade-school pie charts to take tackle the enigmatic federal hiring process—and ignoring three real reasons the hiring process is out of whack. Read the Post